Higher oil prices boosted the value of contracts awarded to Kuwaiti companies listed on the bourse by nearly 51 percent in the first nine months of 2021, according to local data.

From around 630 million Kuwaiti dinars ($2.079 billion) in the first nine months of 2020, the value of those contracts jumped to nearly 952 million dinars (3.41 billion) in the first nine months of 2021, showed the figures published on Sunday by the Kuwaiti Arabic language daily Alanba, which cited corporate reports.

"An improvement in oil prices this year has positively affected project activity in Kuwait with a large increase in the value of contracts awarded to local firms," it said. The report showed 14 listed firms won 48 public contracts in the first nine months of 2021 compared with 13 companies winning 50 deals in the same period of 2020.

The biggest contract this year was awarded to the Kuwait Portland Cement Company with a value of around 317 million dinars (1.049 billion), the report showed. It said nearly 40 percent of the total contracts this year were awarded by the state-owned Kuwait Oil Company with a value of nearly 385 million ($1.27 billion).

The oil sector and logistics services had the lion's share of the awarded projects this year, with a value of 366 million dinars ($1.2 billion) and 355 million dinars ($1.17 billion) respectively, the report said.

(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@refinitiv.com)

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